21 November

Al Baculis – Clarinet, b.1930, Montreal, QUE, Canada

Al Daniels (piano)

Alex Wilson (piano) – 1971

Alphonse Mouzon – Drums, b.1948, Charleston, SC – Alphonse Mouzon is the Chairman/CEO of Tenacious Records. He composes, arranges and produces, as well as acts, but he is most well-known as a percussionist. Born on November 21, 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina of African-American, French and Blackfoot Indian background, Alphonse Mouzon’s popularity as a performing artist first became realized in the late 1960s and early 1970s. – He received his first musical training at Bonds-Wilson High School and moved to New York City upon graduation. He studied drama and music at New York City College as well as medicine at Manhattan Medical School. He continued receiving drum lessons from Bobby Thomas, the drummer for jazz pianist Billy Taylor. He played percussion in the Broadway show “Promises, Promises”, he then worked with pianist McCoy Tyner, then he was a member of Weather Report with Larry Coryell on guitar, Joe Zawinul on keyboard and Wayne Shorter on saxophone. After that Alphonse Mouzon signed as a solo artist to the Blue Note label in 1972. – Alphonse Mouzon’s name is recognized in most Jazz Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, and is listed in the 2nd edition of Marquis Who’s Who in Entertainment and Who’s Who In The World. Mouzon was voted the #2 best multi-instrumentalist in the 1995 Jazziz Magazine Annual Readers Poll. He currently resides in Northridge, California with his daughter Emma Alexandra and his son Alphonse-Philippe, along with various household pets.

Alvin Burroughs – Drums, b.1911 d.1950, Mobile, AL

Anastassia Molto, 28 years old

Arthur Petersen, Singer, Born Cape Town South Africa

Arthur Schutt – Piano, Arranger, b.1902 d.1965, Reading, PA

Carmen Nikol (vocals) – 1975

Charlie “Fess” Johnson – Piano, b.1891 d.1959, Philadelphia, PA

Charlie Palmieri (piano) – 1927

Claire Austin – 1918

Coleman Randolph Hawkins – Tenor Sax, b.1904 d.1969, St. Joseph, MO – Coleman Hawkins, nicknamed “Hawk” and sometimes “Bean”, was a prominent jazz tenor saxophonist, regarded as “the father of the tenor saxophone” in jazz: “there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn” – Hawkins was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1904. Some out-of-date sources say 1901, but there is no evidence to prove such an early date. He was named Coleman after his mother Cordelia’s maiden name. – He attended high school in Chicago, then in Topeka, Kansas at Topeka High School. He later stated that he studied harmony and composition for two years at Washburn College in Topeka while still attending THS. In his youth he played piano and cello, and started playing saxophone at the age of nine; by the age of fourteen he was playing around eastern Kansas. – Hawkins joined Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds in 1921 with whom he toured through 1923, at which time he settled in New York City. Hawkins joined Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, with whom he played through 1934, sometimes doubling on clarinet and bass saxophone. Hawkins’ playing changed significantly during Louis Armstrong’s tenure with the Henderson Orchestra. – During the mid to late 1930s, Hawkins toured Europe as a soloist, playing with Jack Hylton, Django Reinhardt and many other groups until returning to the USA in 1939. – He then recorded a seminal jazz solo on the pop standard “Body and Soul”, a landmark equivalent to Armstrong’s “West End Blues”. – What was up to date in jazz changed radically over the decades. When record collectors would play his early 1920s recordings during Hawkins’ later years he would sometimes deny his presence on them, since the playing on the old records sounded so dated. – In his later years, Hawkins began to drink heavily and stopped recording (his last recording was in late 1966). He died of pneumonia in 1969 and is interred at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

Craig Marquardo (vocals) – 1972

Dr. John (piano) – 1940

Francesca Tanksley – 1957

Geoff Keezer – Piano, b.1970, Eau Claire, Wisconsin – Geoffrey Keezer is a jazz pianist and composer. He came from a musical background, his father Ronald Keezer being a jazz drummer and now-retired professor and jazz band director at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He began his formal study of piano at five. In 1987 the National Association of Jazz Educators presented him with a NAJE Young Talent Award. After that he studied at the Berklee College of Music. Keezer had his first album soon after and in the early 1990s was in “Three Musicians” with Joshua Redman. He has also been a member of the Ray Brown trio, the New Sound Quartet, and his own Geoff Keezer trio. Further he has done composing work with orchestras in California. – Outside of jazz he works in several genres and did a duo with Hawaiian slack-key guitarist Keola Beamer in 2003.